


K/I/T/T/E/N/S

by Go0se



Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Album), My Chemical Romance, The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys (Comic)
Genre: Adopted Children, Alternate Universe - Animals, Cat Puns, Gen, Implied Animal Harm, Team as Family, WIP Amnesty 2014, catfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 14:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1713551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Go0se/pseuds/Go0se
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story of four cats, a dumpster home, a cold-looking enemy, and a new addition to their own. </p><p>(WIP Amnesty. I wanted to make a silly mostly-everyone-is-cats Killjoys AU, and I lost steam on it. Almost a not!fic but not quite.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	K/I/T/T/E/N/S

**Author's Note:**

> For reference, and for cute: [ Poisoncat](http://i.imgur.com/XcFMwsg.jpg), [Ghoulcat](http://i.imgur.com/QMcpPPx.jpg), [ Kobracat ](http://i.imgur.com/crB0A0f.jpg), [ Jetcat (except slightly more orange)](http://i.imgur.com/a8UKC0F.jpg), [Gracecat](http://catvideos.com/sites/default/files/u1297/selkirk-rex.jpg), a [ snuggly group-esque photo](http://i.imgur.com/EWsCcAf.jpg), and [ Killjoycat motto](http://i.imgur.com/xc4M6fn.jpg).  
> (Additionally, not very relevant to this AU but I found the picture and was amazed, [ puppy Patrick Stump](http://i.imgur.com/zTAK2tX.jpg).)  
> Thank you for your time.

//  
  
  
By the ocean there is a city, and in that city there is a old building, and behind that old building there is a alley, in which there's a old dumpster, and underneath that dumpster there is a den where four tomcats live. Their names are Purring Poison, Fur Ghoul, Kobra Kat, and Jet Star. Them being felines they, of course, named themselves; Kobra Kat and Fur Ghoul because they sounded cool, Purring Poison because he felt it reflected his inner self. Jet Star named himself after the words smeared on the giant silver birds in the Field Of Giant Metal Pigeons where the others first found him.

Kobra and Poison had always been together, being littermates and all, and when they'd seen they'd seen Jet and almost immediately recognized him as one of their own. A Killjoy Cat. Fur Ghoul was much the same, though he'd been hanging around a fish market by the Water. (Because of the abundant food, and because he actually _preferred_ to be near a source of water. The cat was a freak.)

They'd been on the prowl in the city for a long time before they'd found the dumpster. But then they had found it, and it was the perfect height off the ground to block dogs from crawling under it, but easy enough for them to navigate with their superior slinking abilities. Once you were underneath it you realized that it slanted up until it met the wall it was pressed against. There was enough room in the slant for a shorter-legged cat (i.e. Ghoul) to stand up straight with his tail out and for longer-limbed cats (the others) to sort of half-crouch in a way that was still moderately comfortable, and of course there was space for everyone to lie down. The rain didn't get in under the dumpster. The dust that blew around the city sometimes had a hard time getting in too, and the top of the dumpster made a easy jumping board to a ledge on the old building where some juicy pigeons roosted. There were rats scurrying around the alley, too. And it was good.

Of course, just because the dumpster was good didn't mean it was exactly _safe._ There were some other felines skulking around the neighbourhood who had bones to pick with Purring Poison and his friends, for various reasons; there were also crows, infernal birds who were too fast too catch with sharp beaks and talons and a mean streak a couple streets wide. And of course there were the natural disasters: rain, cold, the buzzing blurring circles of rubber that left marks on the pavement and could cut someone in half without so much as a stop, the tall busy statues that kicked. A cat had to be careful where he went, lest he be caught in a ambush or a tragedy.  
Worst of all, there were the huge white-covered monsters who the Killjoy Cats had each seen, on more than one occasion, sweep down the street and scoop up one of their friends, despite them fighting the hardest they knew how. The monsters didn't have any faces but they did have long sticks that shot lightning, and they'd grab the cat and press them down and there'd be a smell of singed fur, and then the cat would go limp, and the monsters would bundle it into a box and then get back into their Loud Metal Boxes and go away, down the busy street and into one of their Buildings that no one knew where they led.  Some kitties spread stories about a room that stank of fear and metal that the monsters brought the captured Killjoys too, with huge doors covered up and down in bars, and said that once you went into those doors you never came back out. Whether or not that was true, everyone knew that when cats got gone they were _gone_. No one ever saw them again.  
  
Make no mistake that living in the city was like a war, but the four Killjoy cats had the dumpster and each other and they were, overall, pretty happy.  
  
-  
  
One day, a new addition came to their small crew.  
Before they arrived Purring Poison was out on a hunt break in the old building next to their home. He wasn't having much luck. Honestly he thinks that's just as well-- there's other stuff to eat, and Poison disliked pigeons. They were loud, filthy creatures, liable to tell anyone anything for so little as a week-old french fry each. And being on the run as him and his Killjoys were-- well, it was better not to have such flock-brains around them.  
The only time Purring Poison had eaten pigeon was when he'd been desperate. Especially after being practically force-fed the human's stinking metallic-scented mush and then stuffed back in a cage, dark and cramped, the smell and noise of dozens of others closing around him...)  
_Stop it_ , he told himself. His fur was standing on end just thinking of the place.  
He shook himself all over and then turned tail from the blur of light and noise below him, running nimbly back to the opposite window, where he had to stop again. It was still pouring outside. He growled and narrowed his eyes at the grey sky. “You think this is funny, don't you?” He yowled. Of course, no answer came.

  
By the time he'd crawled on his belly into the safe, dry warmth under the dumpster, all of his fur was completely soaked. Fur Ghoul, the dog-breath, looked up from the corner where he was curled and actually _laughed_ at the puddles Party's long fur was making on the ground.  
“Shut up,” Poison hissed. He'd shook the water off as best as he could when he was coming in but did it again now anyway, trying to get as much as possible in Ghoul's direction.  
Ghoul, of course, actually got up and _leapt into_ the newly-formed puddles. “Ahhh, clean,” he purred, rolling on his back in the water.  
“Where's Kobra,” Poison meowed, after shuddering at the _idea_ of intentionally getting wet. He'd taken a few cursory sniffs and not smelled his brother. “Didn't he come back yet?”

 

“Hrrr,”a voice sounded. Kobra's sleek paws, ears, and skinny shoulders appeared under the edge of the dumpster that pointed toward the alley, quickly followed by the rest of him. He had a large rat in his mouth, which he spat out into the middle of the floor as soon as he got inside. “I got us some dinner,” he told them.  
“Good job,” Poison meowed approvingly, going up and sniffing the rat. “It's pretty fresh?”  
“Caught it myself.” Kobra stretched widely, flexing his claws on the concrete and twitching his ears. “It was too slow.”  
Party butted his head against Kobra's in thanks. His brother pushed back for a second, and then pulled away, looking like he was about to hiss. “You're all _wet_.”  
“He was chasing after pigeons,” Ghoul chirped, being no help at all. He rolled onto his side and rested his head on his paws, half-closing his eyes lazily. “I keep telling him there's no cover up there, but does he actually listen to me?”  
“Thanks, _mother_ ,” Poison growled.  
Ghoul looked at him, unimpressed, then just rolled over so he was facing away from them.

  
Just then Jet slinked in, moving slower than normal. And tail-first.  
Poison perked up immediately, padding over to the edge of the dumpster and pressing his belly against the ground so he could see what Jet was pulling. It seemed to be a small, soggy bundle of fur. Hmm.  He sniffed, but couldn't smell anything over the rain. Raising himself onto his paws again, he trotted back a few steps until Jet pulled the bundle in fully. “Did you bring dinner, too?” He asked hopefully.  It would be nice too have a full stomach again, and not have to share one rat between the four of them (even though it was a big rat; his brother was really good at catching things, Poison was so proud of him).  
Jet, to Poison's slight concern, didn't answer; only set the bundle down and then flopped on the floor like he was really tired from a long run. He was breathing heavier than normal, too.  
Poison batted lightly at the fluffier cat's tail, which was even more wet than his had been. His friend had been out in the rain for a _while_. “Did you bring dinner too?” Maybe he hadn't heard?  
Kobra brushed past Poison, pausing a few inches away from the bundle with his front right paw raised slightly. He stretched his thin neck forward and sniffed, whiskers bobbing for a couple seconds. His ears perked in surprised when he finished, and he looked over at Poison. “It's not food, it's a baby,” he meowed.  
“A baby?” There was the skittering noise of claws on concrete; Fur Ghoul joined Kobra over by the small ball of matted fur that apparently wasn't food. He sniffed the ball, too, carefully, then looked over at Jet. “Where'd you get a baby?”  
“She's really small,” Kobra added, gently tapping the kittens tiny tail with his paw. His own tail was twitching side to side, it always did when he was agitated about something.  
Jet still wasn't answering, though. “Jet?” Party pressed his nose carefully to his friends' warm neck. “Why aren't you answering?”  
“Mrrrw mrr rr.” Jet curled up into a circle and opened one dark eye to look out at his friends. “She's not mine,” he clarified. “I found her. Out by the corner.”  
“She's _really_ small.” Kobra looked up at Jet, his eyes almost totally round, either distressed or just adjustments to the level of light around them. “She shouldn't be away from her mama.”  
Jet's ears drooped. “... her mom was in the ditch.”

Oh.

“I couldn't just leave her out there,” Jet Star meowed miserably. “All by herself.”  
“What about her brothers and sisters?” Kobra asked, narrowing his eyes orange eyes at Jet in that way he did when he was trying to figure something out. “She must have had some. At least one.”  
“It was just her.” Jet curled himself up tighter. “She was soaking wet.”  
They both were, still.  
  
Oh, Poison thought again. He craned his neck a little to see over his friend. The ball of fluff _was_ really little. Maybe her mama had run out of energy.   
It was about this time that he realized his brother and Ghoul were both staring at him unblinkingly. Tilting his left ear in annoyance, Poison had to work not to hulk his back up. “What?”  
“Are we keeping her or not?” Ghoul put forward.  
What? “Of course we're keeping her,” Poison meowed, narrowing his eyes at Ghoul. “Where else would she go?”  
To Poison's surprise, both other cats relaxed at that.  
  
At an unspoken agreement, dinner got relegated to later in the evening. Kobra Kat curled up on the floor (after nudging the small ball of kitten-fur over a little, closer to Jet), nose to tail. Fur Ghoul joined him, flopping down on the other side of the tiny cat. They both started to pur, partly to help themselves rest at the end of a long day and partly to ease the tiny, muted distress-cries of the kitten in between them. Jet joined them after a while.  
The three of them could be pretty loud, but that was fine; the sound meant home. After a while the temperature in their den started to rise into acceptable warmness.  
Poison carefully stepped over his crew, including the tiny new addition, and went to the front entrance to the alley to stand watch.  
  
*

 

The kitten, as it turned out, was too small to actually speak yet. She could manage little squeak-like meows and chirps that made Poison's ears prick before he realized they were her, and was able to walk fairly well, though she hadn't quite got the hang of jumping forward, let alone off of something taller than one of the Killjoy Cats' back.

They didn't have a name for her and she was too little to make one for herself, so the four of them just took to calling her The Kitten, or Kit-Cat. She would, they assumed, think up her own name when the time was right.

  
===  
  
  
(That's the functional 'end'. There's also this, which I'm deciding to keep because it almost makes this a not!fic and I like the image of angry-furless-cat!Korse.  
  
  
_Further notes-_  
\--Kitten love! In which Grace particularly admires Kobra, who is not actually the most standoffish with her, but she likes him best. Ghoul is kind of despondent about it, Jet's just glad she's alive enough to make likeability-decisions, and Poison is busy worrying/not-worrying about keeping everyone safe and alive and who's turn it is to hunt and such. Grace always squeaks Kobra to watch her jump/pounce/climb up things and wants his input on her decisions and such.  
\--Maybe I put in a ~~sly dig~~ at Kobra Kat being sort of a player-cat with feline ladies in the neighbourhood. Maybe I don't.  
  
-Occasionally people on the street notice a line of cats sneaking back to someone's house. It's Bob's house. Though they're outdoor cats, the group tends to crash there from time to time, when shit gets particularly down or ugly. Bob thinks of them as his cats. Ghoul climbs all over him and there's at least one point when Bob just picks up Poison around the middle and deposits him somewhere, which Poison is none too gracious about but isn't mortally offended or anything.  
                        --At the end-ish? They get caught in a scrap outside and someone calls animal control. They get out of the fight okay (except for Jet, who's ear gets torn), but then animal control picks them up and scary-as-fuck. They mean well though; one of the workers finds the tattoo in Ghoul's ear and call it and Bob's like, hey, do you have other cats there too and they're like yeah and he's like okay I'm on my way right now.  
But all the Killjoys know is that the baby's gone, even when they get back home.  
-Korse is a hairless cat they see through the window who's always looking at them evilly. Poison is sure he's responsible for this injustice... somehow.  
So they plan this big epic thing even though they might go back to the pound, or be put down--- cat!Poison still has a fear of needles--- and they're totally into it and sad-determined and getting to break out of the house and go down to the chrome-smelling terrifying place (vet clinic),  
when Bob opens the door, carrying a small bundle in his arms.  
And yeah. It's Gracecat. The shelter had put her in a different room because she didn't have an ear tattoo and kittens have a better chance of getting adopted than adult cats, but Bob had seen her pouncing with the others so he made sure to go back and find her specifically.   
He drops Grace, carefully, onto the floor, and she scuttles over to the others. They all meow loudly, crowding close to her and letting her jump around and bat their noises. Happy questions (-Where'd you come from, baby? How'd you get away?) happen, nose boops, one of them cleaning behind her ears where there's a worrying build-up of gunk but it's all good.  
And then Bob calls them all to the kitchen by rattling kibble (they won't eat wet food), and they all settle down to have dinner. Warm and breathing and together, which are the important things.  
  
//


End file.
